Australia captain Michael Clarke will be happy to stay in the pavilion while his team are batting for the rest of the World Twenty20 if it means more repeats of Friday's thrashing of India.

Clarke's men took a giant step towards the semi-finals with a thumping 49-run win over India in their opening second round Super Eights clash here at the Kensington Oval.

Australia's total of 184 for five was built on an opening stand of 104 between man-of-the-match David Warner (72) and Shane Watson (54).

Although a top order batsman, Clarke decided others should go in ahead of him, even though he was listed at four, before Australia pacemen Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait took six wickets between them as India were dismissed for 135.

"I think the batting order you see at the start of the game is irrelevant," Clarke said.

"This was a good opportunity to put Dave Hussey in at three and Brad Haddin at four, guys that seem to clear the rope pretty easy.

"I just didn't see the opportunity to get out there. It might be different in a couple of days.

Clarke added: "I believe we have the best two openers in Twenty20 cricket in the world. They bat fantastically together, left-hand right-hand combination, and both are very aggressive.

"But if they need to take their time they aren't too distressed. There was a maiden at the start, the boys didn't seem too bothered. They can play a huge part in this tournament. I'm blessed to have them on my side."

Australia have never won either of the two previous World Twenty20s and at last year's edition in England, were knocked out in the first round after losing to both the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

The Lankans, who themselves overpowered West Indies by 57 runs later here on Friday, are Australia's next opponents in the Super Eights when the teams return to Kensington on Sunday.

Sri Lanka could be without star off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, struggling with a potentally tournament-ending groin problem, and Clarke said: "He's a huge player no doubt. If he's in their team, he'll play a big part.

"He's obviously a world-class bowler in any form of the game."

Watson played out a maiden in the first over of the match against India from their star off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, whose four overs only went for 15 runs in total.

But with left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja conceding six successive sixes split across two overs, Clarke and Warner both reeling off three in a row, Harbhajan's figures hardly mattered.

"He was the bowler we felt threatened by," Warner admitted. "We got our ones and twos off him and the odd boundary.

"That's why we targeted the bottom end with the breeze," the left-hander added. "We knew we were going to at least try to get 12 or 15 runs from the next over going down the breeze."

Meanwhile Clarke said his squad's versatility could help world champions Australia take the Twenty20 title.

"It's very strong and can adapt to different conditions...If we can continue to make totals like that, with our bowling and the way we're fielding, it's going to be hard for opposition teams to beat us."